The instant invention relates to surgical instruments and more particularly to bone clamping devices. Even more particularly, the instant invention relates to bone clamps having guides for guiding bone drills so that a fractured bone can be temporarily held in place when drilled to produce a drilled passageway in the fractured bone followed by the insertion of a bone screw into the drilled passageway to permanently secure the fractured bone.
A number of bone clamp designs are available to the modern orthopedic surgeon. U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,532 to Shoemaker disclosed a locking forceps design having a fixed drill guide in one jaw thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 8,080,045 to Wotton, III, disclosed a locking forceps design having a fixed drill guide in a coaxially articulated jaw arrangement. U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,849 to McGuire discloses a c-clamp design having a sliding drill guide in one jaw thereof. USPAP 2008/0009871 of Orbay et al. discloses a c-clamp design having a drill guide bored axially through the clamping screw thereof as well as fixed angle drill guides in a jaw plate thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 2,181,746 to Siebrandt disclosed a locking pliers having a drill guide positioned in one jaw thereof, which drill guide could be adjusted for drilling at a number of different angles.
Despite the significant benefits provided by prior art bone clamps, none of the bone clamps of the prior art provide a drill guide having sufficient adjustment with regard to compound angles in the longitudinal and transverse directions in relation to the longitudinal axis of the jaws of the bone clamp. A bone clamp having a drill guide capable of such an adjustment would be a significant advance in the art.